Music Review: Jimmy Eat World LIVE

Manchester Academy 1 - 13/09/2013

Words: Lindsay Bradley

After a fun-filled set at Download festival in June, Jimmy Eat World returned to the UK in support of their new album Damage. The sold out show still had people queuing outside over an hour after doors opened and in typical Academy 1 style, the queues at the bars were a pain.

This did not dampen the crowd’s spirits when Jimmy Eat World walked on the stage. They opened their set with their catchy new track ‘I Will Steal You Back’ showing their new material is on par with the old. The 1 hour and 45 minute set was filled with hit after hit and whilst it would have been nice to hear some banter, the 25 song set was enough to compensate.

The opening chords of ‘My Best Theory’ really got the crowd excited as they sang along word for word. This is something that continued throughout the set, hits such as ‘The Authority Song’, ‘Work’ and ‘Bleed American’ just signify how extensive their music catalogue is. The band has been together for nearly 20 years and they have released eight albums. The energy they produced on stage shows that there are no signs of them stopping soon.  

Front man Jim Adkins even played a mini acoustic set including ‘For Me This Is Heaven'. He gave it his all but unfortunately the sound in the venue made it difficult to hear for those standing towards the back.

The set was somewhat predictable, with most of the tracks performed coming from 2001’s Bleed American. It would have been nice to hear the band end with something other than ‘The Middle’, but the Manchester crowd loved it.

If you have never seen Jimmy Eat World live, you are missing out on something special.

Oxford Road rating: ★★★★